Mick Beadle named an unchanged team for the visit of high flying Leamington. A large travelling contingent made for a good atmosphere which Coleshill exploited to their advantage.

Coleshill were full of confidence following the mid week defeat of Coventry Sphinx and it was noticeable from the start that the home team were in a more determined mood than the visitors. It took the Greens 19 minutes to open their account whem James Lloyd fouund Danny Carter with a cross field ball that the young striker controlled first time and drove it acroos the visitor's keeper. Coleshill confidentally destroyed the Brake's attacks and even after Josh McPherson limped off after 24 minutes to be repaced by Mitchell Thompson which saw Lloyd switch inside, the home team were in no danger. With 31 minutes gone Carl Smith was adjudged to have handled a goal bound effort on the line and was dismissed from the field of play. The resultant penalty saw a casual Josh Blake miss a golden opportunity to level the scores when he shot wide.

The second half followed a similar pattern with the visitors not troubling Coleshill unduly. With an hour gone Craig Davies netted form the spot following a foul by the goalkeeper to send Coleshill two nil up. Leamington now enjoyed their best spell of the game and netted twice within two minutes through Richard Adamd and Josh Blake. However, rather than pushing on against the ten men, Leamington seemed content to settle for a draw. Danny Carter had other ideas and with two minites left on the clock he silenced the travelling supporters by giving the keeper no chance from just inside the penalty area.

In the space of under a week Coleshill have put a big dent into two sides who seemed to think that to turn up would be enough to secure a victory. The home show continues with another game on Tuesday when Dudley Sports are the visitors.

COLESHILL TOWN 3 v LEAMINGTON 2
Midland Combination Premier division Sat 16 Oct 04
By David Hucker
Brakes' Comeback In Vain
This was a match that Brakes could and should have won. Having clawed their way back from a two-goal deficit to level with 19 minutes to go, they then snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when allowing Danny Carter free rein to score his second goal and Coleshill's third with two minutes of normal time remaining. Talk of the championship is now muted and the travelling support which swelled the Packmeadow crowd to a respectable 175 went home depressed by another off-colour performance.

Coleshill started brightly pegging Brakes back in the early exchanges. However, the visitors started to make an impression and looked the more likely to score until, in the 20th a long clearance from the Coleshill half found Danny Carter wide on the left who raced onto the ball and beat Richard Morris low into the far corner of the net, 1-0. Josh Blake could have struck back immediately but, after good work by Vernor Sleem and Leon Morgan, he drifted into an offside position. Five minutes later, Richard Adams made a fine solo run from his own half, but fired his shot into the side netting with only the 'keeper to beat.

On 30 minutes, Brakes had a golden opportunity to equalise. An inswinging corner form the right by skipper Steve Thompson was eventually met by Morgan whose goalbound header was handled on the line by Carl Smith. The referee pointed to the penalty spot and, after several minutes of protest from the Coleshill team, sent Smith off. The player left protesting the decision all the way back to the dressing rooms and, when the match got underway again, Josh Blake stepped up to put the penalty wide. As half-time approached Richard Adams went on another run cutting in from the left and beating three players before pulling his shot across the face of the goal.

Brakes pushed forward in the second half and on 52 minutes, Blake charged down a clearance from 'keeper Craig Jones and Adams fired the ball across the face of the goal. Three minutes later, a cross from Thompson was punched away by Jones and picked up by Morgan, but the goal was disallowed as Blake had taken up an offside position. Morgan was then booked for dissent (he had exchanged words with the officials at the end of the first half) and it all went pear-shaped for Brakes as Coleshill got a second in the 61st minute. Richard Morris, who had been a spectator for all the opening period of the half raced from his goal to upend the dangerous Carter and Craig Davies showed how penalties should be taken netting his twelfth goal of the season, 2-0.

The introduction of Stuart Herlihy in place of Vernor Sleem started the comeback for Brakes. Although he missed a good chance to score when slicing his shot wide with only the 'keeper to beat, he more than made up for it in the 69th minute letting fly with a stunner from outside the penalty area into the corner of the net, 2-1. Then a long punt out of defence two minutes later found Josh Blake whose header beat the advancing Jones to make it 2-2 in the 71st. Further efforts from Chris Hanrahan and Ben Adams could have won it for Brakes but Andy Gregory (who has looked out of sorts since returning from Racing Club Warwick) was outpaced by Danny Carter who sealed the match for Coleshill in the 88th, 3-2.

There was added time for that spent by a Coleshill official using a corner flag to retrieve the matchball from a high hedge (the other two also having disappeared out of the ground) but it was not enough for another Brakes comeback.

A special mention goes to Darran Tank who, after a shaky start with the club, has been the most dependable member of a defence that has a less than solid look about it at times. Brakes continue as the league's leading scorers, but it is at the back that matches are being lost.

Manager Jason Cadden put on a brave face saying "After the flak that has been flying around in recent days, we all wanted to do well and the whole team is gutted at the result. We created enough chances to win and conceding the third was plain sloppy."